It went off at 98 years one of the veterans of the last cavalry charge of the Royal Army on the banks of the Don, in the disastrous Russian campaign
Saber flying against Soviet machine guns: that's how it is Giancarlo Cioffi he imprinted his name on history, together with those of the comrades who gave rise to the last cavalry charge in history.
The one that has gone down in books as the Ishbuschensky's charge.
Born in Milano In the 1921, he was also among the heroes who gave life to that heroic and dramatic charge in the Russian steppe, in the midst of the Russian campaign. At that time he was a cavalry non-commissioned officer: After, returning from the defeat of Armir on the back of his faithful horse, Violet, he became an architect. The saber remained stored in the sheath, but his figure is not, he quickly became a legend among the army units that yesterday welcomed the news of his death, a 98 years, with honor and respect, aware that the symbols are destined to remain immortal.

Because that charge was truly legendary. Sword against machine gun, horses against artillery, swords drawn with their faces turned to the sun and the awareness of facing a practically certain death. Yet the Italians of Armir did not stop: confirming the value of our men in a disastrous campaign like that of Russia. He was there in that last heroic cavalry assault. And it was there not only in the charge with the sound of the trumpets that drowned out the volleys of Soviet machine guns, but also afterwards, when the commander made the remaining soldiers dismount from the saddle to cover the knights still launched towards the enemy. It was a hot day in the sultry summers on the banks of the Don. The regiment Savoy cavalry, 700 men (including Cioffi, Alessandro Bettoni Cazzago, Giancarlo Conforti, Luigi Gianoli, Silvano Abba) they were standing still protected by the Voloire. All’alba, resuming the march, an advance patrol noticed that the 812th Siberian Regiment had surrounded them: it was the end. The Russians started shooting, Then, after a quick reflection on the part of Commander Bettoni Cazzago, just grazed by a bullet, the choice, the only one, the desperate one: load. The Second Squadron sets off with sabers drawn and launching skills. A scene that has remained immortal in a black and white postcard that narrates that charge. Then the others begin. All 9:40 of the morning, the battle was over. south field, they remained 34 Italian soldiers and a hundred horses, 150 the victims among the Soviets who also had to retreat.
Cioffi, as he says The Day, he never made a secret of the fact that he remained a sergeant of cavalry even later, when the war is over. Also in the latest documentary on Isbuscensky, the sergeant loved to tell his story: “I wore my first uniform as a child in 1928 and I've never taken it off since. When the war broke out I thought that too’ I had to do what I could and therefore I enlisted in the Fourth Squadron of the Savoy Cavalry Regiment (now part of the Folgore Paratroopers Brigade ed) which was based in Milan“. Colonel Ermanno Lustrino, current commander of Savoy, Sergeant Cioffi recalled this: “We are sad to have lost him, but happy that God has preserved it for us so long: I have never met anyone who could convey so much strength with just one look“. And it couldn't be otherwise.
source – http://www.ilgiornale.it/news/cronache/addio-giancarlo-cioffi-leroe-carica-isbuscenskij-1687585.html?mobile_detect=false